Adobe Audition Tutorial

Basics about audio file

Concepts of sound
Latency: delay between input and output
Frequency: Measured in Hz. Describes the number of cycles per second. (For example, a 1000Hz waveform has 1000 cycles per second.) The higher the frequency, the higher the musical
pitch.
Amplitude: Measured in db. Reflects the change in pressure from the peak of the waveform to
the trough. High-amplitude waveforms are loud; low-amplitude waveforms are quiet.
Sample rate

Quality level

Frequency range

11,025 Hz

Poor AM radio (low-end multimedia)

05,512 Hz

22,050 Hz

Near FM radio (high-end multimedia)

011,025 Hz

32,000 Hz

Better than FM radio (standard broadcast rate)

016,000 Hz

44,100 Hz

CD

022,050 Hz

48,000 Hz

Standard DVD

024,000 Hz

96,000 Hz

Blu-ray DVD

048,000 Hz

Concepts of digital audio

Sample rate: Indicates the number of digital snapshots taken of an audio signal each second.
The higher the sample rate, the closer the shape of the digital waveform is to that of the original
analog waveform. Low sample rates limit the range of frequencies that can be recorded, which
can result in a recording that poorly represents the original sound. We use 48000-44100.

Bit depth: Determines dynamic range. Higher bit depth provides more possible amplitude
values, producing greater dynamic range, a lower noise floor, and higher fidelity. We use more
than 16, hopefully 32 bit.

Setting up file structure

After creating the Audition Session, you need to make sure you know where your session is and
be very
careful to keep your audio together with your session.
Set up project folder and gather every file.
- Audio: for source files. (Audition creates .pkf files for each audio track, they help
Audition run more quickly and are small.)
- Documents: for any documents such as scripts, transcripts, wire copy, etc.
- Exports: for exported final products. Could be WAV, MP3 or other format.
- lastname_storyname.sesx: Audition Session file (.sesx) is your project file.
The Audition Interface
In the menu bar, go to Window Workspace and choose Default.
1 Files window - Contains all the files imported into the project. This is your library.
2 Editor window - Contains all the tracks for your project.
3 History window - Contains the last edits you made.
4 Toolbar - Move tool, Razor blade tool, Time selection tool.
5 Multitrack - This is where you will do all of the editing.
6 Levels - Allow you to monitor the levels of your audio for all tracks.
There are
Importing audio

 Go to Finder: Drag files from audio folder onto the Files window in Audition. This will import
the files into your project.
You can also click on the Import file icon in the Files window, go to the File Import
File...menu on the menu bar, or just type Command I
If you import a file with a different sample rate, you might be asked to make a copy of the file
to conform to the session.
Drag your files onto the appropriate track to edit.

Navigate through time

At higher zoom levels, you can navigate to different audio content in the
Editor panel.
Navigate by scrolling
In the zoom navigator, drag left or right.
To scroll through audio frequencies in the spectral display, drag up or down in the vertical ruler.

Controls panels essentials

1 Mute - mutes the track.

2 Solo - mutes all other tracks that are not soloed as well.
3 Record - records audio on that track.
4 Audio meter - allows you to monitor the levels on a single track.

Identifying audio clips

Listen to audio files
-Drag your audio file to the Working track and use the spacebar to play back.
Use the Razor Blade tool (r) to isolate clips.
Then copy a clip and paste on the appropriate track.
Rename the clip (Right click on the clip and choose Rename).

 Grouping clips
-Use the Move tool (v) to select the clips you want to group either by drawing a marquee
around them or by Command-clicking to add or subtract clips from the group.
-Go to Clips Groups Group clips
Time Selection Tool
Select the Time Selection tool to edit out mistakes or unwanted portions of the clip.
Click and drag to select the portion to delete, or position the playhead and use the I and O keys
to set in and out points for the selection. This only works with the Time Selection tool, not the
Move or Razor blade tools.
You can hit the Delete key to preserve the gap or hit Option-Delete (also known as Ripple
Delete) to collapse the gap.
In the top-left corner of the Editor window, you will see a U-shaped magnet.
You can also use the Time Selection tool (t) to make internal edits.
Toggling this button will turn snapping on and off. This tool snaps the clips together
and helps align clips.

Trimming a clip
When you position the mouse over the beginning or end of a clip, you will see a red square
bracket indicating that you can trim or extend a clip.

Audio mixing
The yellow line represents the Volume of the clip. With the Move tool, you can grab this line
and move
it up or down to increase or decrease a clips volume.
Note that each track has a Volume control (located under the track name) that sets the overall
output
level of that channel. This works together with the yellow line on each clip to set the tracks
volume.

 The entire piece should be consistently mixed at the same level.

On playback, monitor the audio by looking at the Levels window.
Audio meters are a good visual reference but your ears are the best tools for level matching.
Meters can
lie, your ears wont!
Fade in / Fade out
When you select a clip, youll see Fade In
and Fade Out icons in the top right
and left corners of the clip. Drag an icon
left or right to determine the length of the
fade. Drag it up or down to determine the
smoothness of the fade.
Keyframes
With the Move tool selected, click on the
Volume line to add a keyframe. This allows
you to add individual points on the line and
do more exact audio mixing for a portion of
a clips audio. This is especially helpful for internal
audio mixing, such as when someone
says a word louder than normal.

Crossfade
Move the two clips to the same track and
drag them to overlap each other. Two
yellow lines will intersect, showing you the
crossfade.
Exporting
Make sure to Mute the Working track so that it isnt included in your exported file.
Set in and out points to determine the portion to export.
Go to File Export Multitrack Mixdown Time Selection...

Assembling a Basic Audio Story Using Adobe Audition

STEP 1: Gather your original audio files in one place
Using the Finder, create a new folder for your audio story (this new folder should be inside your working folder on
the Classes server).
Copy/move all the raw audio files you plan to use for this story into that folder you just created. This keeps you
organized.

STEP 2: Open your files in Audition

Launch Adobe Audition.
Go under FILE to Open. In the box that appears, find the files you plan to use. Hold the shift key and click to select
multiple files at once. Click Open. Then youll see this:

In the Files panel at the upper left of the Audition workspace youll see the list of open files. On the right you should
see the waveform for whichever file is highlighted in the files panel. You will also see the name of the open file in
the top tab of the Editor panel (above the waveform and timeline).
(You can always open additional audio files while editing your story by following the steps above but make sure
you have copied/moved the files into the correct folder before opening them in Audition.)

STEP 3: Select, save and normalize individual sound clips (waveform

mode)
Holding down the mouse button and dragging over the waveform should enable you to highlight a specific portion
of the audio (a soundbite) for use in your audio story. (If this is not working, make sure you have the Time
Selection tool selected at the top of the window).

You can adjust the beginning and end of the selection by dragging on the in/out point in the timeline above the
waveform.

To sample your audio selection, be sure the loop playback function is turned on in the playback controls below the
waveform.

Then hit the Space Bar on the keyboard. Audition will keep playing your selection over and over until you hit the
space bar again to stop it. Keep adjusting and testing until you have a nice clean soundbite selected.
To isolate the selected soundbite for use in your story, right click (or Control+click) anywhere on the waveform. In
the pop-up menu, choose Copy to New (or go under EDIT menu to Copy to New).

Now youll see the waveform for your soundbite in its own, untitled audio file.

Double-click on the waveform to highlight the whole thing. Then go under EFFECTS menu to Amplitude and
Compression >> Normalize (Process)

In the window that appears, set it to Normalize to 85% and click OK.

If your waveform was thin before, youll see it gets much wider. Doing this with each of your clips will make your
finished story come out with better consistency in the volume levels.
Save this soundbite by going under FILE to Save (or type Command + S).

Soundbites are usually named with the speakers last name and a number, i.e. Hurt01.mp3.
Click BROWSE to navigate to the folder where all the other audio for this story is saved. This new file should go in
there with the rest of them.
Format should be mp3. Click OK. If it gives you a note about saving to a compressed format, click Yes.

STEP 4: Assemble sound clips into a story (multitrack mode)

The best way to combine multiple clips together is to create what Audition calls a multitrack session. So, go under
FILE to New >> Multitrack session

In the window that appears

-Give your session a name (one or two words to describe the story you are working on).
-Click Browse and navigate to the same folder where you saved all your audio files for this story. Once you found
it, click choose
-Make sure the Sample Rate, Bit Depth and Master match the numbers above (which should be the same as your

audio files).
-Click OK
This will open a new session file in the multitrack mode:

As highlighted in the image above:

1. You are in the multitrack mode.
2. The Move tool is now selected.
3. You have a new .sesx file added to your files panel. This is NOT an audio file, but rather a file that contains the
instructions for how your audio files are assembled to create your story. (When you are finished assembling, you
will export a new audio file that is the finished story.)
To assemble clips, position the mouse in the Files panel over the clip you want, hold down the mouse button, and
drag from the Files panel into a Track on the right. When you let go, you will see the waveform of the clip appear in
that audio track.

Keep doing this until all of your soundbite clips are assembled in the right order in one track. (Any space in between
your clips in the Track will come out as silence, so close the gaps by placing the clips right next to each other, but
without overlapping them.)
You can rearrange the order of the clips by dragging the blocks around in the tracks.
You can listen to your assembled story by positioning the yellow playhead in the timeline above the tracks and using
the play controls at the bottom of the screen and/or the space bar on the keyboard (the same way you did in the
Waveform mode).

STEP 5: Export your finished piece

When you are happy with your story, right click in one of the tracks on the right and choose Mixdown Session to
New File >> Entire Session.

Audition will automatically add a new audio file to the list in your Files panel and return you to the Waveform
mode, where a single waveform for the entire story will be displayed. Give it a listen.

If you like it, then go under FILE to Save. Use the same settings you did for your individual soundbites, but make
sure the finished story file name is all lowercase with no spaces or punctuation and save the finished story in a folder
on the Classes server.

STEP 6: How to add narration

Before actually adding narration, you should transcribe the soundbites you plan to use in your story and then write a
full script for your report.
Next, time yourself reading the narration, and add that up with the length of your soundbites to make sure your
finished story will be the right length. If not, edit the script and retime yourself to make sure your piece will fit the
desired length.
Once all that is done, then go record your story narration all at once, leaving short pauses where the soundbites go.
Copy that narration file into the folder with the rest of your storys audio, then open your editing session, audio files
and the new narration file. Double-click on the Narration file to open it in the Waveform mode. Double-click on the
waveform to select the whole thing, then Normalize to 85% just like you did with your soundbites. Save the file.
Go back to your story session file in the Multitrack mode. Put your soundbites onto Track 1. Then drag your
narration audio onto Track 2.

It should be easy to see where you left pauses in the narration waveform.
In the toolbar at the top, select the Razor Selected Clips Tool.

Then click at the pause points on the Narration clip in Track 2 to slice the narration where the soundbites go:

Using the Move tool, space out the elements of your story so the soundbites and narration are offset and no longer
overlap each other:

Use a the same basic idea on Track 3 to incorporate natural sounds into the piece.
Once you have arranged everything, give it a listen and adjust as needed. When everything is good, go back to Step
5 above and export your finished piece.

Create silence
Creating silence is useful for inserting pauses and removing nonessential noise from an audio file.
Adobe Audition provides two ways to create silence:

To mute existing audio in the Waveform Editor, select the desired content, and choose Effects
> Silence. Unlike deleting or cutting a selection, which splices the surrounding material
together, muting leaves the duration of the selection intact.
To add silence in the Waveform or Multitrack Editor, either position the current-time indicator or
select existing audio. Then choose Edit > Insert >Silence, and enter the number of seconds. Any
audio to the right is pushed out in time, lengthening duration. Multitrack clips are split if
necessary.

Noise Reduction effect (Waveform Editor only)

The Noise Reduction/Restoration > Noise Reduction effect dramatically reduces background and
broadband noise with a minimal reduction in signal quality. This effect can remove a combination
of noise, including tape hiss, microphone background noise, power-line hum, or any noise that is
constant throughout a waveform.
The proper amount of noise reduction depends upon the type of background noise and the
acceptable loss in quality for the remaining signal. In general, you can increase the signal-tonoise ratio by 5 to 20 dB and retain high audio quality.95 Effects reference Last updated

6/9/2015

To achieve the best results with the Noise Reduction effect, apply it to audio with no DC offset.
With a DC offset, this effect may introduce clicks in quiet passages. (To remove a DC offset,
choose Favorites > Repair DC Offset.)
A Drag control points to vary reduction in different frequency ranges B Low amplitude noise. C High amplitude
noise D Threshold below which noise reduction occurs.

Apply the Noise Reduction effect

1In the Waveform Editor, select a range that contains only noise and is at least half a second

long.
To select noise in a specific frequency range, use the Marquee Selection tool. (See Select
spectral ranges.)
2Choose Effects > Noise Reduction/Restoration > Capture Noise Print.
3In the Editor panel, select the range from which you want to remove noise.
4Choose Effects > Noise Reduction/Restoration > Noise Reduction.
5Set the desired options.

When recording in noisy environments, record a few seconds of representative background noise
that can be used as a noise print later on.

Noise Reduction options

Capture Noise Print

Extracts a noise profile from a selected range, indicating only background noise. Adobe Audition
gathers statistical